Inside Out: This Summer’s Best Movie! – by Ganem McIntyre

Pixar has given us many of the greatest movies in the past few decades. The Disney company has produced cinematic wonders such as Toy Story 1,2, and 3, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, and of course, Up. The main thing Pixar has always been praised for is its unbelievable story telling abilities. Who doesn’t tear up during the first ten minutes of Up, or in the final goodbye scene at the end of Toy Story 3? The key to Pixar’s success has always been its ability to evoke emotion from its viewers, so it only makes sense for them to do a movie personifying the very thing that made them successful.

Inside Out is the story of an 11 year old girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias). During the movie we are introduced to Riley’s five key emotions who control and help her cope with her thoughts. These emotions are Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black). The film’s director Pete Docter (who also worked on Monsters Inc and Up) has said the film is meant to be taken metaphorically, not literally, which makes the message even more meaningful, especially for older viewers.

The five emotions operate in a control center, aesthetically similar to those seen in the Star Trek movies. When Sadness gets a hold of Riley’s core happy memory, she and Joy get sucked into Riley’s subconscious, leaving the three most unstable emotions to deal with Riley’s newly found depression. It’s up to Joy and Sadness to fix a mistake that shouldn’t have happened in the first place and to return back to the other three emotions so that Riley can start feeling better again.

This description of the film is brief for a reason – I don’t want to spoil all the surprises that Inside Out has in store. Inside Out is about as perfect as a children’s movie can get. It makes you laugh and it makes you cry. If you didn’t get the chance to go see this film during the summer, make sure you do when it’s released on DVD. You can thank me later.